People watch movies on stuff

Streaming remains minority pursuit

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Digital downloads may be ever increasing in popularity, but physical discs reign supreme when it comes to movie viewing and expenditure. For now.

In the last three months, 77 per cent of US consumers reported watching films on DVD or BD - a stat that is unchanged from last year, the market research firm NPD reports. By contrast j 68 per cent watched a movie over a TV channel, 49 per cent at a cinema and just 21 per cent paid for a film through their TV set.

When asked about expenditure on home video, consumers said about 78 per cent of their home entertainment budget was splashed on DVD/BD rentals, including in-store and online purchases.

Fifteen per cent was spent on subscription services such as Netflix, while the remaining eight per cent was split between digital downloads, paid streaming, pay-per-view films and video on demand.

NPD analyst Russ Crupnick expects continued growth in the digital sector, but today physical discs continue to "lead overall engagement and spending by home video viewers; and even with increasing use of VOD and other digital formats, the primacy of DVD and Blu-ray in home video will continue for the foreseeable future."

The future is today for Lovefilm, the UK's answer to Netflix, which has announced an on-demand deal with Walt Disney to stream 50 films from Tron: Legacy to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The movies will be available at no extra cost to all customers who pay at least £5.99 a month in subscription. ®